This article advocates the inclusion of the arts, and specifically, art activism, as a beneficial pedagogical approach to leadership development. Focus is given to using examples of art activism to introduce the student leader activist identity continuum (SLAIC), the exploration of leadership identity, and situating activism as transformative…

Many teaching strategies exist to develop critical thinking with students. Art students engage with critical thinking in a "Connected Art" workshop, implemented in three diverse Higher Education (HE) learning environments. Participants are interdisciplinary adult learners in the UK, Germany and Spain. Using joint practice development,…

This article presents a therapeutic framework to examine the continuum of creative destruction to transformation through altered book making. The rebuilding of a printed book parallels desired changes that bring individuals to art therapy, including concepts related to reframing, reforming, and reclaiming. The relationship between creative…

The rise in the number of young people disengaged from mainstream schooling is reaching critical proportions. This paper explores a child-framed participatory inquiry known as The Walking A/r/tography Project, which sought to challenge, empower and engage youth at risk in one Special Assistance Secondary School in Southeast Queensland through…

This article reports findings from a study using arts-based and embodied (ABE) approaches to enhancing capacity for distributed leadership and explores the professional learning which took place as a result. The data reported in the article are from the UK research which formed part of the ENABLES (European Arts-Based Development of Distributed…

The present article explores how "movement-based performing arts" lessons focusing on bodily imagination may expand secondary school pupils' learning experiences. The study centers on the learning experiences and emotions of 28 participants described through art-based action research and the lens of interpretive inquiry. The results of…

The inquiry-based approach in museum education often takes the form of an educator asking open-ended questions to facilitate discussions around artworks, while encouraging students in careful observation and interpretive processes. However, although art museums are emphasizing learners' experiences and their interpretative processes, adult…

Teachers often enter practice with a narrow perspective of teaching. Through critical reflection, the minds of pre-service teachers can be opened to the bigger realities of teaching and social justice practice. Paired pre-service student teachers from two diverse university settings, Canada and South Africa, were immersed in a collaborative…

In an attempt to connect theory and practice with regard to research on creativity and visual arts, this study aims to explore how visual materials created by children can help determine qualitative parameters in the process of observing creative activity. These materials are the result of a series of workshops designed by the authors, artists,…

In this article, we discuss the role of affective learning and arts-based inquiry as a catalyst for providing transformative learning experiences in teaching social justice issues related to Indigenous cultures and histories. The research was conducted with first-year pre-service teachers studying an Indigenous Knowledges course as part of their…

Between 2005 and 2017 yielded fertile ground for research studies and articles about transformative learning and the arts within the field of adult education. The main questions this article seeks to answer are: What art forms are being used for transformative learning, how are they being used, and with what effect? The article begins by…

This paper describes an online undergraduate course that explores ways the arts can help students develop a clearer understanding of how perceptions about (dis)ability affect their lives, and the lives of others. The course engages a variety of questions through web-mediated and arts-based activities, including: What is disability? How does…

The community engagement project described in this article took the form of the re-invention and re-interpretation of a historic symbol (Diana the elephant) on the Potchefstroom Campus of North-West University (NWU), South Africa. In 2015, the Faculty of Education Sciences invited staff and students to reinterpret the elephant (a symbol of…

Although prevalently focused on research-based outcomes (i.e. better understanding of a particular phenomenon, process or experience), arts-based researchers have widely emphasised the transformational potentialities of arts for individuals. In particular, the arts create space for thinking differently and provide opportunities to explore…

This paper evolved from an artistic residency entitled The Stories Within that took place at the University of Guam in February 2017. The Stories Within intercultural research was led by independent creative artist Sarah Jane Moore and represented a collaboration between Moore and Assistant Professor of Education at the University of Guam, Dr Dean…